Shoshana Pearl's Defense of Her Parents

Shoshana Pearl's Defense of Her Parents

Shoshana Pearl defends her parents. For the record, I think that the Pearls family is a cult or at least, cultlike.

It’s true. I am Mike and Debi Pearl’s youngest daughter. My name is Shoshanna Rashell (Pearl) Easling and I am writing this to set the record straight.

For anyone new to the Pearls, they do not believe in getting legal marriage licenses because it would connect them to sodomites(sadly, I am not joking)

Over the years many people have commented on how surprised they were at how “normal” my siblings and I are. This makes me laugh!Some people think because we grew up with parents who spanked us when we misbehaved that we should be emotionally scarred, socially crippled, broken spirited, withdrawn, and so on. Boy, are they wrong! Me, broken spirited? HA! No one that has ever known me would think such a thing. Our parents raised us to be spirited, creative, confident, successful, and funny. To top it off, I am a go-getter kind of gal (check out Mom’s Preparing book). My parents did not raise any spiritual clones! And none of us ever went through a time of rebellion against God or our parents.

The problem, for me, has never been that the Pearls advocate spanking but that they train their kids like dogs. Pearl supporters try to change the argument from being about abuse to one about spanking. In To Train Up A Child, the Pearls write that their oldest daughter, Rebekah crawled at four months. So, they spanked her! Michael and Debbi write about their 'training' sessions with their children. They would give the kids commands. The child would be told, stand up, sit down, touch the knob, don't touch the knob and if the child didn't comply quickly, without question and without a smile pasted on his or her face, the parents would switch the child. This isn't just a quick swat on the butt, this is mental torture.

I am 27 years old and married to a wonderful man, James. Everywhere we go heads turn to check him out. Yes, he is handsome, but what catches people’s attention is the giggling baby girl in his arms, our five-year-old little rascal of a boy smiling mischievously while holding his daddy’s hand, and his glowing wife who obviously thinks he is super. We are blessed, and God is so good! I could go on and on about my amazing husband and my awesome life, but that is another article. I want to tell you how life was growing up in the Pearl house.

If you are new to the way the Pearls write, be aware that they include a lot of exaggerations. Michael writes that all of his daughters had men panting after them, desperate to win their hand in marriage. His sons are all ultra masculine as is Michael Pearl. They are all super happy people who have sex frequently and never say no to one another. They are just down to earth, simple country folk. This is part of the mythology that they have built around themselves. The photos of James show an average looking, young man. He isn't ugly, just not handsome enough that women would stare after him. As far as their son, all children are cute. So what?

As far as I can tell, the main bulk of the Pearl children's income is from writing and working on their parents' magazine. They have a strong interest in keeping the family business prosperous

James is at the bottom. He isn't ugly but neither would I give him much of a second look. Unless of course, he wears really ugly clothing or does ballerina moves when he walks. I am not saying this to mock his appearance. I would like to point out that the Pearls are prone to exaggerations about many aspects of their family life.

Again, I am not saying that he is ugly, just not drop dead gorgeous enough to turn heads wherever he goes.

Even if their kids were the cutest little kids ever, if her husband was really worth panting over (I'm not seeing it), or she's a ten physically, I agree with you, Debrand: so what? They beat their kids. They beat their infants. Her parents are monsters.

those are some good looking girls, the pearl daughters...but yeah. me thinks they doth protest too much. even the "meet the pearl girls" write ups wax rhapsodic about how in LOOOooooOOOOve they all are.

Austin wrote:
Even if their kids were the cutest little kids ever, if her husband was really worth panting over (I'm not seeing it), or she's a ten physically, I agree with you, Debrand: so what? They beat their kids. They beat their infants. Her parents are monsters.

Amen. And it is a weird justification for abuse. "My husband is good looking and my kids are cute so buy my parents' child beating manual." It's almost like the Pearls are disconnect from reality

It looks like none of the Pearls are gainfully employed--they are all internet peddlers. Successful? Um, okay. Didn't Pearl write somewhere that his style of parenting is raising the next generation of doctors and therapists? Then why does no one in this relatively large group have a degree or a career?

I'll put my stats out there:

Stepchild #1: BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Works as mechanical engineer.
Stepchild #2: BA in Psychology from University of Colorado. Currently in Japan where husband (BS in Physics) is employed. When Hurricane Katrina happened, she spent months on the clean-up effort.
Stepchild #3: Works as consultant for large winery. Has taken college courses in business and agriculture. Plans to finish BS in Agriculture/Something to do with wine this fall at Central Washington University.
Stepchild #4: Manager of local Best Buy and owner/founder of a large, increasingly popular gaming site. No degree, no interest in getting one, never liked school but worked his way up at BB in a very short time.
Child #1: Straight A high school student/captain of JV soccer. Studying for SAT's.
Children #2 and #3: Solid students in elementary school. #2 is a violin virtuosa who performs locally.
Children #4 and #5: Not in school yet but reasonably well-behaved.

That's what successful parenting looks like: successful children. I think my stepchildren are all significantly younger than the Pearl clan as well--they are all quite young, but had a lot of internal direction and external support. How can the Pearls claim the proof is in the pudding when the pudding is, well, underwhelming?

She can write anything she wants, but what the Pearl's have done is indefensible.

Many victims of abuse are never capable naming their abusers. Many victims of abuse never identify themselves as abused at all. If she is repeating this with her children then she is part of a cycle, and she is now an abuser as well.

These people (the Pearls) and the people who follow their "methods" need to be put in prison. They have been the driving force behind so many tears, shed by innocent babies and children. There is simply no redeeming quality in them. If you hurt a child you are the worst of the worst.

And none of us ever went through a time of rebellion against God or our parents.

This is what I don't get about fundies. They seem to think any period of doubt or rebellion must be quashed lest it take away from their message. But it is NORMAL to question what we've been taught, it is NORMAL to assert your identity against your parents as you grow. I'll grant you that some ways of doing this are healthier and less hurtful than others, but the simple act isn't abnormal or even bad. Indeed, if you've raised your kids right, their period of questioning should end with them coming around to the healthy beliefs, not with eternal damnation.

I've said it before - there is nothing at all noble about accepting something your are told wholecloth. There IS something noble about questioning what you've believed in and coming back to what you believe is the truth. Doubt is essential to faith - faith requires people to OVERCOME their doubt. Without doubt, there would be no need for faith. The whole concept of religion is that there are things we must question and consider, and faith will let us bridge the gap to accept a higher power - logic alone won't get us there.

How have Rebekah and Gabe managed to fly under the CPS radar? Living without running water or electricity is not a crime (many off the grid people do it) but when you combine it with a shack of a house, unemployed father (who doesn't seem to want a job), and grandparents who advocate spanking newborns, one would think that CPS would make an appearance.

Austin wrote:
Even if their kids were the cutest little kids ever, if her husband was really worth panting over (I'm not seeing it), or she's a ten physically, I agree with you, Debrand: so what? They beat their kids. They beat their infants. Her parents are monsters.

Amen. And it is a weird justification for abuse. "My husband is good looking and my kids are cute so buy my parents' child beating manual." It's almost like the Pearls are disconnect from reality

Who cares what these people look like? That's superficial. They beat babies with PVC pipe and wooden dowels. As I indicated when talking about Rebekah's defense of her parents, these people, with their focus on minutia at the expense of major matters, are not normal.

The Anasts have written so much about their appalling, 3rd world poverty that I am also surprised no one has intervened.

OT: did you know they discuss us over on 7xSunday? Bekah wrote this on a thread: Someone over on freejinger wrote a while back that "his body belongs to me and when I want it, I say so..." or something to that effect. I believe the Bible says the same thing from the perspective of giving your body to your spouse... that your body belongs to your spouse and it is not right to withhold it. (http://www.7xsundayDOTnet....php/topic,26826.0.html)

The fact that she didn't give a url or background suggests that they are all familiar with us.

The Westboro Baptist Church's 2nd generation are composed of some very outgoing people. Doesn't mean they weren't mistreated, aren't part of a cult, and are in the process of abusing the 3rd generation. Shoshana's writing sounds exactly like her dad's: he sounds like an arrogant asshole, and Shoshana sounds like an arrogant asshole. Sounds like spiritual cloning to me!

Rebekah's husband Gabe(same name as her brother but not the same person) Anast gave up a paying job to remain home and run his site. Supposedly he reads the bible most of the day and considers that work. Because of lack of funds, the Anast's lost electricity and water. Gabe berated the members of his forum for not supporting him.